17 things that always happen on Christmas Day

Christmas Day is different in everybody’s house, but there’s some things that you can guarantee will happen every year.

We’ve asked around Haven HQ to find out what happens in their house on the big day!

Zoe

(source: hexjam.com)

We always have arguments over who gets what present in the crackers!

Lucie

(source: seriouseats.com)

My sister is responsible for the cranberry sauce for the turkey (everyone is asked to sort something) and is guaranteed to get the wrong thing!

Last year she bought it as usual and it wasn’t until we had all put in on our turkey and started eating until we realised it was redcurrant jam! – It was sickly sweet and pretty disgusting! 😀
We could get someone else to buy it this year but it is amusing finding out what she has bought instead.

Naomi

(source: travelwithkat.com)

We always run out of brandy to light the Christmas pudding!

Michelle

(source: persephonemagazine.com)

We always play Texas Hold ’em in the evening and my father in law is very very very serious about it! My mother in law always has a tantrum when she runs out of money and my dad usually falls asleep between hands!

Vaughn

We always play Monopoly as a family (only time we do as I treat it like I am Alan Sugar and it’s all real)

Vaughn

(source: funkidslive.com)

Silence must be held while myself and my mother watch the Dr Who Special, any talking will result in eviction from the front room

Suzanne

(source: bbcamerica.com)

Guarantees on Christmas Day – someone will bring up the story of me getting drunk and burning the bread sauce or me being so hungover I looked like Patsy out of Ab Fab!

Suzanne

(source: foodandwine.com)

We always have champagne, smoked salmon and eggs for breakfast on Christmas Day. And I can guarantee my Mum never cooks Christmas dinner as it’s her birthday!

Emma

There are never enough seats round the table so we use whatever else we can find, stools, fold up chairs!

Emma

(source: partyingredients.co.uk)

We all agree no one really likes turkey….yet we always have it again the next year!

Lesley

(source: sheknows.com)

Dogs will still get walked at stupid o’clock in the morning but as the present unwrapping begins, all the Christmas paper that has been torn off presents you can guarantee the dogs will be wrapped up with it and have cellotape stuck somewhere on them.

Lesley

(source: shatteredhaven.com)

When it’s time to clear away the wrapping paper, does anyone else accidentally scoop the socks or a present you get every year from the same person and end up binning them by accident and later you have to tip out the recycling to find them…the socks that is, not the person who gave them to you!

Liam

(source: gloucestercitizen.co.uk)

Somebody will always say ‘it’s just a game’ (and it’s normally my Dad) after a quiz or board game gets slightly more competitive than expected! (It’s always my Dad). But we all know it’s not just a game’!

Zoe

There are only a few of us now at Christmas as my Grandparents are no longer with us, but growing up, we wouldn’t eat Christmas dinner until about 5pm as it took so long to prepare for such a large family (everyone would go to my Nan and Grandad’s – cooking for about 13 people was a challenge), which meant we couldn’t open our presents until everything had been cleaned away.

Bearing in mind, this happened EVERY year, so we ended up being pretty patient children! Now at Christmas, it has become a bit of a tradition, so while all my friends still message me to say what they’ve got for Christmas at like 8am, we’ll have only really had our stocking in the morning (and yes, that means we still get stockings from my Mum at the ages of 27, 28 and 32!) and then after we’ve eaten later in the day, we’ll open our presents.

Annerlei

(source: brainfoggles.com)

It is always guaranteed that no matter what time I change it to my dad will call as soon as I put lunch on the table!

Angeline

(source: theodysseyonline.com)

My house is chaos! We always have good intentions of playing well coordinated board games. But when the time comes to play, nobody remembers the rules from last year, only a few of the 18 people listen to the person re-reading the rules out loud, the ones who do listen don’t fully understand them or have conflicting interpretations of the rules and a discussion/row then ensues.

One of the kids will spill a drink/have a tantrum/have a ruck with another one of the kids and it disrupts the start of the game and leads to one or both of the parents leaving the playing area so the teams then have to wait or re-adjust to make it fair. And then as we eventually begin, someone (used to always be my dad!) gets it totally wrong!

Helen

(source: telegraph.co.uk)

I decorate the tree the night before and guarantee it would be changed by the time I come back down in the morning!

What always happens in your house on Christmas Day? Let us know in the comment section below. Plus, we’re giving away a £50 Love 2 Shop voucher! Pop on over to our Facebook to enter – good luck!